Friday, August 26, 2011

Friday's Weekly Round-Up 38

Old news - we've been reporting on this before - but the final death-knoll, now, it would seem, for New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel (sold, earlier this month, to real-estate mogul Joseph Chetrit, in a reportedly $77 million dollar deal). Mick Brown's obituary note (first published in London's Daily Telegraph) may be read here.. Here's the obligatory New York Times article.

One of its many denizens Patti Smith (permit us our segue!) has just announced her movie options. After the National Book Award for Just Kids -Just Kids, the movie? She will be collaborating on a film adaptation with her friend, the playwright and screenwriter, John Logan (he of "Red", the Tony-winning play about Mark Rothko). So, possibilities of another cameo Allen? Who will play him in the (surely obligatory) Automat scene? ("Are you a girl?" he asked. "Yeah", I said. "Is that a problem?" He (Allen) just laughed. "I'm sorry. I took you for a very pretty boy!")

More memoirs. Philip Glass's memoirs have just been sold. His publisher, W.W.Norton have announced that contracts have been signed and that the book will be published (on a so-far unannounced date) under their Liveright division. Looking forward to stories about Ravi Shankar, John Cage, and the nuts-and-bolts of working with, and collaborating with, Allen. What will he say? Well, remarks in yesterday's LA Times, give a tantalizing taste - "I knew him very well", Glass declares, "we did a lot of concerts together. Like Cage, he understood the function of art and the function of society in a very integrated way. More than any other person, he understood ethics and morality. The thing about Allen, he really believed in what (Pharoah) Ahkenaten called 'walking in truth'"

Another consummate truth-teller was sociologist, author, Paul Goodman (1911-1972). Jonathan Lee's documentary, "Paul Goodman Changed My Life" (featuring, among others, Allen) has just been released. A short trailer for the movie can be seen here. Lee and UC grad student Michael Fisher can be seen (some years back) talking about the project here. Variety's review ("(it) will awaken interest in a fascinating multifaceted figure") begins to spread the word. Goodman, you'll recall, participated, along with Allen, in 1967, in the Conference on the Dialectics of Liberation (and his contribution, along with those by Herbert Marcuse and others, notably "Black Power" spokesman, Stokely Carmichael, may be accessed here).

Another earlier post (on the famous February 1967 "Houseboat Sessions") also deserves an up-date. Here's news of Mark Watts (Alan Watts' son)'s movie about his father, Why Not Now?, featuring "animation, as well as vintage footage, recordings, photos, art.." The unlikely collaborator, cartoonist (and fan!) Mark Stone of (t.v's "South Park"), along with his partner, Trey Parker, as well as "The Simpsons" animator, Eddie Rosas, are among those involved in the project. Here is an example of a Stone-Parker animated Watts (of which Paul Goodman would most surely approve!).